Matur og Drykkur
Let’s start with the star of the show. Find your way to Skal! in the foodhall at the end of Laugavelar. It’s mostly counter dining, and small plates. But they are veeeery good, a match for a lot of good stuff in London. The stand-out dish was a beautifully chargrilled piece of arctic char. This fish is ubiquitous in Iceland, but in five attempts we never had a piece treated as excellently as this. They are serious about their drinks too. All natural wines, and really a bit on the rustic side. Much better are the cocktails, including some great house inventions with a real enthusiast’s cornucopia of strange syrups, ferments and shrubs. Lovage daquiri was superb.
Char at Skal
Grillmarket was somewhere in the middle. It’s a big barn that slurps up a lot of tourists, but the meat-heavy fare is at least flavoursome and well executed. Full disclosure: they do a mean jalapeno margarita that we guzzled extensively. So we were inclined to be happy! The food isn’t bad at all, but no better than the better kind of chain restaurant would put out.
Let’s end with a breakfast treat! Creme brulee doughnuts at the DEIG bakery towards the harbour. The doughnut and filling were splendid, but crowned by the brulee topping – they blowtorch the sugar coating right in front of you and it certainly had a great bitter-toffee crunch.
And just to avoid your disappointment. The “world famous” Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur hotdogs are a perfectly good snack for about £3 but really, don’t expect fireworks. It’s just a jolly good cheap hotdog.
Creme brulee donut
